A heritage site plaque marks the area of the Barry Building explosion in January of 1975.

That’s on McIntyre Street near Ferguson Street.

The explosion claimed 9 lives and many more people were injured.

The chair of the Municipal Heritage Committee Peter Handley says it’s important to recognize events in this city’s history whether they’re happy events or tragic ones.

“It wouldn’t happen today because there are so many safety precautions in place. The smelling of gas would have triggered something. It didn’t back then,” he says.

He says the plaque contains lots of information about the events and people impacted by the explosion were consulted for input.

“Some of them contributed information that we didn’t have. They were in support of the idea and it was heartening to see them at the plaque unveiling,” Handley says.

1 of the 9 who died was 15 year old Mary Margaret McDonald of Temiscaming and her brother Tom McDonald says he’s glad the plaque is up so young people know what happened.

“Hopefully, this will generate questions and memories. The rules and laws have changed since 1975 about handling natural gas and hopefully an event like this never happens again,” he says.

Four North Bay residents including 2 doctors were killed, two residents from South River and people from Hamilton and Texas were also lost. The range in ages was from 15-76.

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